Review: Yeah Yeah Yeahs shine on fourth album

By SIAN WATSON

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Associated PressYeah Yeah Yeahs, “Mosquito” (Interscope Records)

From the opening seconds of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ fourth album, you’ll wonder how you have lived without the dulcet tones of Karen O for the four years since the release of their third album, “It’s Blitz.” No one else has a voice quite like hers.

But the indie rock trio’s new album is different from their Grammy-nominated 2009 effort: Every track on “Mosquito” could be a single.

The album opens with “Sacrilege,” which is brilliantly constructed with pounding drums, leading into layered, screeching background vocals. The title track buzzes with a hypnotic rhythm, reminding you integral drums are to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sound. The lyrics are almost comical, but add to the feverish frenzy with lines like, “Suck your blood, they’re gonna suck your blood.”

Beauty emerges in the album’s quieter moments, too: “Subway” uses the lulling rhythm of a train travelling down the tracks, as Karen O sings softly and quietly, “I lost you in the subway car, got caught without my Metro card.” The softness is reminiscent of “Maps” on the band’s 2003 debut, “Fever to Tell.”